The present invention is directed to article sorting apparatus and methods which seek to economically bridge the gap between machine sorting of articles and the manual addressing of same. For background material which exposes the magnitude of the problem in the postal area, the reader is directed to the many publications of the Post Office Department and including "Human Factors Engineering in the Sorting and Handling of Mail", "Memorandum on Postal Needs" (H.F. Faught) and "Post Office Automatic Address Reader." There are, of course, a large number of prior art disclosures and apparatus presently available which have this same or similar objective, as for example, disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. RE. 25,998 (Original U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,424)to Silverschotz; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,350,545 to Street; 3,438,489 to Cambornac et al.; 3,090.870 to Ruckert; 3,486,040 to NcMillan; 3,180,996 De Good et al.; 3,122,237 to Stenstrom; 2,988,984 to Eckert, Jr. et al. 3,246,751 to Brenner et al. and 2,815,400 to Poylo; there being many others. While a number of prior art systems provide for machine readable manually marked codes (as well as mechanically marked codes), it is evident from the recent, above noted, postal announcements that such systems have not solved the problem of bridging the gap between machine reading and manual marking of codes. While the present invention is directed principally towards method and apparatus for utilization and reading of manually marked codes, it will be apparent that several of the features to be described in greater detail, namely (1) the upside down passing of the articles through the reading station, and (2) the means for locating the manually markable grid, can be used to advantage in machine or mechanically marked codes.
In a highly preferred form, the invention contemplates a postage stamp or other member having an adhesive on one surface or other, means for affixing same to an article to be sorted. A code grid is printed or formed on the exposed surface of the stamp, the grid or template being adapted for receiving a manually placed pattern of visible code markings, as made by a pencil, pen or the like. If the grid is printed, the ink used should be of a material which is sensed differently from the material used to make the code; it could be magnetic ink and hence can serve as the guide element. If the grid is light colored and the article surface is dark, (or vise versa) the code may be punched as by a manual hole punch device. In combination with the manually markable grid and as a dominant feature of the invention is a code grid locating means or guide element, preferably composed of a pair of physically dissimilar spaced marks at least one of which is elongated which are responsive and different in character from the manually marked code. As indicated above, in some cases, if the grid or template is printed with magnetic ink it then can serve as the guide element.
The apparatus includes means for passing the articles, if postage envelopes, in upside down fashion, along a path through a reading station. The reading station includes means for detecting the code grid locating means or guide elements and using same to orient either the article or manual code reading apparatus to accurately read the manually marked code. After the manually marked code is read and a signal corresponding thereto, produced, the article is directed to the destination thereof according to the signal so produced.
The pair of code grid locating or guide elements may be conductive, magnetic, fluorescent, or other electroresponsive elements, and one of the pair may be an elongated diamond and the other a circle, or other geometrically different shape such as a line on the grid so as to simplify detection and location, it being understood that the grid or template may be made to serve as locating means itself.
As mentioned above, the articles are passed in upside down fashion through the reading station. Since most postal articles, particularly envelopes and flat articles, have the postage placed in the upper right hand corner thereof the upside down passage of the article through the reading station minimizes the degree of relative movement necessary to assure accurate reading of the manually marked code, and, of course, eliminates large adjustments for varying size envelopes, etc.